It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a person in possession of inky painty fingers, must be into mixed media, altered art, and all things artful! (with apologies to Jane Austen)

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

"Little Gidding"

T S Eliot

Tuesday, 17 November 2015

Sweet dreams ...

Collage number four on my art course was freestyle, so I decided to combine abstract with natural objects I've not used before.

My thought process was thus -

I just love the sunset moths that are found in Madagascar ...
Moth is one of the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream...

- I know, a bit random!

I also did some planning on this one - having learned that with collage some sort of plan is no bad thing! So this piece is made of many layers.

First layer is a little Brusho -

Then a few skeleton leaves (which have a pale green tinge).

A couple of shapes handcut from pages (yes - from the play - I have a copy of Shakespeare's works which I cut up).

Plus a pressed gypsophila.

More Brusho -

A couple more skeleton leaves, gypsophila, some honesty seed heads, and some fine straw-like strands (which originally came from some packaging).

Finally, my version of a colourful moth, done in watercolour, with added texture from bubblewrap. I also added some splatters of gold watercolour (which is a fabulous paint by Schminck), and to balance the blue wings, a little blue Brusho too. I also die-cut the word moth from the book pages.

Still struggling with watercolour, so I've signed up for another set of classes (!) which will concentrate on watercolour techniques.

"Over hill, over dale,Thorough bush, thorough brier,Over park, over pale,Thorough flood, thorough fire,I do wander everywhere,Swifter than the moon's sphere;And I serve the fairy queen,To dew her orbs upon the green.The cowslips tall her pensioners be:In their gold coats spots you see;Those be rubies, fairy favours,In those freckles live their savours:I must go seek some dewdrops hereAnd hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone:Our queen and all our elves come here anon."

A Midsummer Night's DreamAct II, Scene 1Fairy to Robin GoodfellowThe current Paper Artsy challenge is all about abstracts so ... I'm adding this one!My thoughts are with the people of Paris - and to borrow a phrase from Robert Burns, I have never, and will never, understand man's inhumanity to man. Vive la France!

1 comment:

I found your process interesting, in particular collaging the skeleton leaves, an idea I am likely to borrow on account that I have a great pile of them and haven't used them for years! I have the Schminke gold, copper and silver watercolours and do love them although the silver one is chunky and difficult to work with unlike the other 2. (of course it could be just this bottle).